Many books and other collections of text include visual representations, such as images or drawings. These visual representations may be used for artistic purposes, to assist a reader in understanding the text, for marketing purposes, and/or for other reasons. For example, a printed book may include visual representations on a dust jacket, at the start of each chapter, and in various other locations in the book. Images may include a map, a drawing of a character and/or scene, and other types of imagery. Often these visual representations are created by an illustrator as a work for hire for the author or publisher. This requires planning, time, and money, which all may be lacking for some authors, such as self-publishing authors.
Electronic-publishing has risen in popularity. Now, almost anyone with access to the Internet is capable of self-publishing a written work in some form. Some services facilitate publishing books or other types of text-based works for specific devices or applications, such as electronic book (eBook) reader devices or eBook reader applications. However, many of these written works lack visual representations. Similarly, most manuscripts or other drafts of written works do not include visual representations.